In another country—or at least at a less politicized time in India— Narendra Modi’s disclosure on Wednesday that he is married might merely constitute a curiosity in his extraordinary political career—official confirmation, at last, of something most voters already knew about the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate for prime minister.

In speeches and interviews, Mr. Modi has maintained he is a bachelor even though Indian media years ago reported that he walked away from a child marriage to a woman named Jashodaben.

Now, the Congress party is arguing that Mr. Modi’s failure to disclose his marital status earlier constitutes a violation of election laws.

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In a complaint to the Election Commission of India dated Thursday, signed by K.C. Mittal, a secretary in Congress’s Legal and Human Rights Department, and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the party notes that election affidavits include a written requirement that they be true to the best of a candidate’s knowledge. The complaint cites a 2002 decision by India’s Supreme Court that held that voters’ right to know about candidates’ qualifications and background “is a natural right flowing from the concept of democracy.”

Prakash Javadekar, a BJP spokesman, said Mr. Modi’s marriage was not going to be an important issue for voters. “They’ve gone mad,” Mr. Javadekar said of the Congress party. “They’ve gone berserk. They’re unsettled because of voters’ response against them and in favor of Mr. Modi.”

Congress’s complaint says that Mr. Modi “made a virtue out of being ‘single’ repeatedly…as evidence of his selfless service.” It was to Congress’s “utter shock and surprise,” the complaint says, that the Indian Express newspaper revealed Ms. Modi’s existence in February. Other Indian media have published similar information about her as early as the 1990s.

The complaint accuses Mr. Modi of “intentional falsehood, deliberate hoodwinking and malicious malfeasance” and urges the election commission to direct the filing of a police complaint for electoral offenses.

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